Disciplines

Publication Details

Abstract

While there is an obvious concern that “new organizational forms” are appearing, and despite the topic receiving increased attention, scholars, as yet, have been unable to theorize, grasp or account for these new forms adequately. In continuing to look for the ‘new’ with ‘old’ lenses, we are seeing neither real departure from Weberian conceptualizations other than oppositional approaches still in search of an essential entity, nor much consideration given to the possibility that the paradigmatic approach to form is also part of the problem. In light of this, I posit that thinking within a modernist epistemological framework has served to limit our horizons when it comes to studying “form”. How to move out of such a framework? Adopting an amodern or nonmodern epistemological framework, as suggested by Latour (1993a), I propose problematizing the notion of “organizational form” by focusing on the practices of “organizational forming.” To expand the limits to our understanding of the organizational, therefore, I argue an amodern metatheoretical framing facilitates paying attention to how organizational forming is performed, such that what we come to identify as “new organizational forms” is achieved, if at all.